


Assemble

by ashes0909



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Divergence - Avengers (2012), M/M, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 07:10:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15480345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashes0909/pseuds/ashes0909
Summary: They tried to make his room appear like the 1940s, but he knew before he even opened his eyes that he was somewhere new. He knew for one, simple reason.Steve could sense his soulmate.





	Assemble

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my T2 - Soulmate square 
> 
> As always, thanks Ferret for the quick beta. :)

**TONY**

_“Some children never sense their soulmate, and they still go on to lead perfectly normal lives.”_

_Tony was eavesdropping, but the Doctor's information was about him, so he thought maybe it wasn’t as bad. He was six and everyone else at school was starting to sense._

_The sensing of your soulmate wasn’t words you heard, it didn’t come in any language, but in a rush of emotion, the ability to connect in waves of joy or sadness, grief or victory. It was a bond that made a human whole, the one that literature and movies were always going on about, that played out of the radio no matter what country Tony was in._

_They said, one day you would sense your soulmate and if you were lucky, you’d meet them, and it would be a connection like none other._

_But Tony only knew because of what others had said. His mind was always silent, and after the years turned into decades, Tony had given up._

His phone blared and so many different alarms went off that Tony thought _the end was nigh_. They were all linked to the arctic projects, but before he could check which ones, he felt it. A flicker, a tendril of smoke filling his head. It was almost in stasis, a blank emotion that Tony only knew existed because it weighed heavier than every other thought in his mind.

The moment hung in the air and then it broke, flooding Tony with a foreign panic.

He was sitting in his office, but he couldn’t remain in his chair. He had to get up. He resisted the urge to start running because he wouldn’t get far in his formal shoes and he’d all but tear through his business suit. He needed Iron Man. He needed to move.  

The panic didn’t recede. It built and built and built, and it wasn’t until minutes passed that it morphed into a burning anger.

Tony had a soulmate. And they were pissed.

Then, they ceased to exist entirely.

**STEVE**

They tried to make his room appear like the 1940s, but he knew before he even opened his eyes that he was somewhere new. He knew for one, simple reason.

Steve could sense his soulmate.

He had waited for so long that he’d moved beyond hope. Now, here he was, on too soft sheets in a too bright room, and his mind was consumed with the confusion and shock of his mate.

His soulmate.

He sat up in the bed, shocking the nurse that sat by the door. She was dressed up in a costume and he knew a set when he saw one after a year on the stage. He ran.

Outside, it was all wrong. Too loud, too much. Everyone around him was dressed in ways he’d never seen before. There were televisions everywhere, so many colors and everything was so, so big. Steve was overwhelmed.

He knew his soulmate could feel it, and he wanted to cry because _this_ wasn’t the first impression he wanted to make on them.

He whipped his head around as if trying to take in the full impact of what must now be New York City. Relief in the back of his head, nestled amongst the panic, that it still stood.

He’d succeeded in saving Manhattan.

He heard the screeching of tires. Standing in front of him was a tall, imposing man with an eyepatch. “At ease, soldier!”

He took a deep breath, but the confusion and panic weren’t his own and their owner was only getting more and more agitated. Steve had to get to them. He _had_ to. It was an ache in his heart, a twitch under his skin, an all consuming need in his mind.

“Look,” the man continued. “I'm sorry about that little show back there, but... we thought it best to break it to you slowly.”

There was awe, fluttering into his mind under the panic. It threw him for a moment, and he needed to take another breath before he could answer. “Break what?”

“You've been asleep, Cap. For almost seventy years.”

His soulmate was from the future.

Steve’s whole world tilted to the side and he was face to face with himself; a small, sickly boy. Lonely with only Bucky to keep him company. The years passed and he had never sensed, never felt, never had anyone the way it seemed everyone had someone.

They were here all along. Waiting for him in the future.

“You gonna be okay?” The man stepped forward. Steve stepped back.

He needed to get to his soulmate, and he needed to do it now.

Propelling his weight forward was easy; breaking passed the man was harder, but he managed it. At least, he had thought so, but then a tranquilizer dart hit the thick of his calf and he was brought to his knees in one breath and losing consciousness in the next.

The world went black.

The last thing he felt was his mate flooding his mind with fear.

**TONY**

Time passed. By the time Iron Man arrived at his office, there was nothing Tony could do, nothing but sit in his workshop and wait.

He tried not to think that his soulmate may never return. They may have come into Tony’s mind only to be ripped from him again so shortly after.

And wait.

His soulmate was afraid, was angry, then there was nothing, and Tony had no idea what was worse, ached that he may never get to feel more than the brief moments he had sensed from his soulmate.

And wait.

Everything was a blur, he could only focus on the now-empty space he hadn’t known filled his mind until his soulmate filled it for him.

Then--

The stirring of consciousness in the back of his mind returned.

Calm, such a pleasant, almost cozy calm, cut too short by another onslaught of panic. Tony choked as he swallowed and had to shake away a worried glance from DUM-E. They were back, his soulmate, and he needed to move, walk out the door but he wasn’t yet used to the sensation of another person sending waves of their emotion into his mind. Especially anger, fear, confusion. He stumbled.

Tony was probably being sensed too.

He hadn’t thought about it before, hadn’t really had the ability to focus. But now, the thought motivated him to take a deep breath as the night air hit his face. He wanted, needed, to meet his soulmate. It was a visceral desire in his veins, for someone he hadn’t known he needed, had written off entirely, but now that they existed, filling his mind, Tony wanted more.

Happy was already at the curbside, door open and waiting for Tony. “Where are we going, sir?”

Tony knew that the alarm for the arctic projects and his soulmate were connected, the coincidence was too striking otherwise. Now that he knew his soulmate was alive, could sense him with every breath, Tony could move again. And there was only one place to go. “SHIELD.”

**STEVE**

Steve paced, twelve steps forward, ten steps long. It was a bedroom, not a cell, but Steve knew there was no difference.

He needed to find his soulmate. It was the only thought that followed each step he made. Like a caged lion, he knew as soon as Director Fury appeared outside his door, he would snap. It felt like all of him was running too, even the fog that was now vibrant and warm in his mind.

The longer he was awake the more defined the fog became, instead of impressions, fleeting emotion, Steve also felt a desire, a yearning. He turned on his heel to pace the other way, his lip raw between teeth. Was that yearning for him?

There was a commotion outside, far off. Steve could hear the faint sounds of shouting, what must be a long way away. A door being thrown open, shouting. He stopped pacing, overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught from his soulmate, a focus to go, go, go. Another door being thrown open. They were coming for Steve, he knew it without a doubt. His soulmate and whoever he was running from. Steve knew who they were running to.

Steve broke open the lock on the door, rushing out into the hallway and following the direction he knew he needed to go. A guard was yelling, one floor - maybe two - below. Steve headed for the stairs. As they got closer, the presence in his head expanded, but also focused, like a ball in the back of his mind, pulsing with every beat of his soulmate’s existence. So close now.

Steve opened the door, knowing that his soulmate was going to be near. There was one man talking, gruff, curt. Then another man's laugh, sharp, cutting, but beautifully melodic, and Steve knew it was his soulmate. He felt the thrum in his mind that timed perfectly with the laugh. He could feel his soulmate trying to outsmart the guard. He was right around the corner, and Steve had made it this far, so he took a deep breath and stepped out.

**TONY**

Out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw a puff of blond hair, and when the man turned Tony met eyes bluer than the sky. The pulsing in the back of his mind, the need propelling him forward, ricocheted back and knocked the wind from his lungs.

“It’s you.” The words were a wisp of breath, spoken by both of them as one, and then all they could do was stare.

Tony’s mind exploded with bright joy, the fog filling and warming him like an embrace from the inside out. He wanted to touch, and he could feel that the man wanted to do the same, a want that almost reached out like a tangible force to fill the space between them. “I’m Tony,” he managed.

“Steve,” he gasped.

Tony moved first, reaching out to grip Steve’s arm, but Steve had moved right after Tony had, towards a door that led to a stairwell. Tony’s arm dropped in the empty air, and he felt a twinge of disappointment. In front of him, midway up the stairs, Steve paused and turned to look at him, because he had felt Tony’s twinge too.

Then, everything was a blur because the angelic face of his soulmate was in front of him from one breath to the next, and Tony wondered, really, how he’d managed to be so lucky because, yes, he knew nothing about this man’s past - though he had his suspicions about his identity - but he did know, from deep within the marrow of his bones, that this man was a good man. His soulmate held strong convictions, a warm empathy, that flooded Tony’s own mind. “What is it?” he asked, hand coming up to run along Tony’s cheek like he was made of glass. “You felt--”

“I wanted to touch--” Steve’s fingers traced from his cheek upward, into Tony’s hair “--you. And you walked away.”

“I live upstairs,” Steve began, and Tony had to bite his lip to resist mumbling, “Like hell you do,” but he still felt the sentiment like a ruffled feather in his own mind so it must have been the same for Steve. For his part, Steve looked amused. He kept brushing his hand through Tony’s hair sending sparks across his scalp and down his neck, and a joy spun in Tony’s mind, Steve’s joy. “I wanted to take you somewhere private.”

“No one here,” Tony pointed out. “And if you stop stroking my hair like that, I might actually start pouting.”

“Oh really,” Steve teased, pausing his hand for a moment. Sparkling joy bounced, dancing in their minds, and _this_ was what all the literature and movies were going on about, what played out of the radio no matter what country Tony was in. It was a high that only existed because Steve was there, could only be understood by him and Steve alone. “I think I’m going to like your pout.”

The words struck a blow, the back of his eyes burning with the sting of relief, and Steve was there again, kind blue eyes and gentle hands stroking his face. “I never thought I’d find you,” Tony admitted.

“I’d given up hope, too.” Their sorrows met, the fog thickening into a heavy cloud as they both remembered the years of doubt, longing, fear.

“I didn’t think I deserved you. I still--”

Steve surged forward, and Tony thought for a moment that he was going to be pulled into a kiss but instead steadying arms wrapped around him. Flush together, their bond burst to life, every inch of Steve reaching out for Tony. He felt whole, his other half finally here, in his arms.

“I feel you, Tony,” Steve whispered against his hair. “And I may not know you yet, but you are mine. Deserving it isn’t a factor at play, so wipe it out of your mind.” Then a flood, a rush: regret, misery, a storm of hurt and pain, none of it his. “You don’t know me either, not really,” Steve said, the blue of his eyes had started to flood with emotion, but when he spoke his words were steady. “But none of that changes what’s inside of us, how we’re made, we’re for each other. Forever.”

Tony melted into the hug, breathing in Steve’s neck. “Finally,” he may have whispered, or maybe he just thought it, but it didn’t matter, there was no difference when it came to Steve.

The door next to them opened, there was the sound of shuffling shoes and Tony looked up to see Director Fury. “I see you two have met,” the Director said, gruff and without a hint of surprise. “Good. We have work to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hi on tumblr: [ashes0909](http://ashes0909.tumblr.com) <3


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